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Friday, September 4, 2015

Kek jantung pisang : the origin of Sarawak's kek lapis?

Can kek jantung pisang be the origin of Sarawak's famous kek lapis?

Earlier, I experienced Bidayuh’s customs, culture and their koperasi activities, today I get to socialize and experience the same with Kampung Tebakang Melayu; located 80km from Kuching near Serian Town, bordering to Tebedu. Homestay and sundry shops being koperasi’s most active source of income, I am not surprise when we were taken for a kampung (village) field trip during our visit here. Here, we went on a boat ride on Kayan River where we get to see how the Kampung Tebakang villagers showcase their key homestay products to the outsiders. I wasn’t thrilled at first, but as usual, boat trips never seems to fail me. I guess they got me at hello *smile*.

We took the long boat to karangan or sandbar where the locals demonstrated the process of cooking ayam pansuh (bamboo chicken(, kek jantung pisang (banana bud/flower cake) and taught us on how to fish using net (not as easy as it looks).Not only that, I was told that udang galah or giant fresh water prawn is also being fished here regularly and the best thing is that, they have 2 methods of catching the prawn; using fishing rod (obviously) and the other, using a shrimp gun (this, I am curious). Prawns are normally being caught after the monsoon season.

I have tried ayam pansuh or bamboo chicken before this at an Iban longhouse but never got around seeing how it was made and lucky me, I get to see it here. Ayam Pansuh is prepared by cooking chicken meat in a bamboo and stuffed with water (which later will be the soup), seasonings and covered with tapioca leaves from the cassava plant. It is light in taste and almost soupy type of dish, it is best eaten on its own or with hot steaming rice. Lapar lah pulak.

Kek jantung pisang or banana bud/flower cake is believed to be the origin of Sarawak lapis cake (so they said). Upon mixing the flour, butter, eggs, baking powder, vanilla essence, granulated sugar and condensed milk together, the mixture will later be cook layer by layer to the desired size thus creating a banana bud or flower look alike.

There were 19 homes participated in the homestay program of which we visited as it was still Raya month, according to the locals the crowd peaked during summer time in northern hemisphere countries. They would want to experience the villagers way of life and visit the National Parks nearby, some coincide their trips to the Rainforest World Music Festival.We were later introduced to the more local food of which I failed to ask the name, leka makan sebab sedap sangat! Hehhehehheh….